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Might be getting a 2nd graphics card. Unsure if it is worth it, no experience with SLI/Crossfire.

  • Thread starter Thread starter X82
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X82

X82

X82

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I recently bought a budget card, XFX PCI R9 280X 3GB. Since Christmas is coming up, I might have the opportunity to get a 2nd one as a gift. I was not aware of this before, otherwise I would have got a better card for more money. My experience with SLI/Crossfire is limited. I would obviously want to do this if I noticed great improvement in the frames in games. I know that using 2 cards does not mean twice the speed, but I am unsure to what to expect.
Running Arma 3 for example, on ultra, I get between 25/30 frames, Altis map gives me less. Tweaking the settings does help. But I don't know what another card would do. Would it bump it up to 40? 50? I have no idea. I don't want someone to spend money on a 2nd card for me if the difference is negligible.
Here are my current specs: i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), 3.4GHz
16GB Ram
Asus P8Z68-V LX motherboard. With 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 and 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode)
1000Watt Corsair PSU.
All advice is appreciated.
 
Not a wide selection at the moment. I play Far Cry 4, some BF4, as I said Arma and nothing else really intense yet. Hoping to get GTA 5 eventually though!
 
Personally having 2 x 7990's I wouldn't bother and will never crossfire again, there is not enough support and AMD is too slow in bringing profiles out. You would think they would talk to games companies and get profiles ready for release of major titles.
 
Paradiso said:
Personally having 2 x 7990's I wouldn't bother and will never crossfire again, there is not enough support and AMD is too slow in bringing profiles out. You would think they would talk to games companies and get profiles ready for release of major titles.
Click to expand...

That is quadfire which is not in the same ballpark as 2way crossfire, quadfire can have issues all of its own which would not affect 2way crossfire or even 3way crossfire.
 
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Signs seem to be pointing to don't bother.
It isn't a case of me just getting one. This will be my partners money and I don't want to blow it to get 2 more frames. I'm honestly surprised. I don't know how this all works really and I am just surprised that the speed isn't doubled, or at least 50% better. They say "it doesn't work that way", well, then it is no good then. Who would spend double on a card (much more expensive than mine) to get a slight increase?
 
X82 said:
Signs seem to be pointing to don't bother.
It isn't a case of me just getting one. This will be my partners money and I don't want to blow it to get 2 more frames. I'm honestly surprised. I don't know how this all works really and I am just surprised that the speed isn't doubled, or at least 50% better. They say "it doesn't work that way", well, then it is no good then. Who would spend double on a card (much more expensive than mine) to get a slight increase?
Click to expand...

Virtually no one, so going by that they must be getting a significant increase most of the time.

To often its the users who are having issues specific to there own setup who post as if thats how things are in general when if it was in fact like that in general then no one would be using it.

As for Arma 3 it seems to be having scaling issues last time i checked.
 
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Just to clarify, I still only be using this setup on one screen. I do have 2 monitors, but of difference size and to be honest, multi monitor gaming doesn't appeal. Does using on one screen make a difference? Would it be better, or just pointless?
 
Don't do it. A 280x in a PCIe 2.0 x4 slot won't perform properly. And, from what I understand, it would be a very unsatisfying performance in crossfire because of that - stuttering etc.
 
It wont be PCI-E 2.0 x 4

It will make them both PCI-E 2.0 x 8 which should be adequate imho.

I had 7970s in crossfire and they performed well although they were heavily overclocked form the factory so I struggled to keep them cool.

2 is better than 1 in my opinion. Unless its only Arma you play?
Cheers
Scott
 
I've been using xfire 6950's for a little while now and have found in most things that there has been a very noticeable improvement and I've not run into any of the problems others have mentioned.
 
Might be worth testing your single card on both slots to see if you get a performance difference. I would assume the x16 and x4 would drop to an x8x8 because the two x16 slots share bandwidth.

Testing it is free though.
 
sgoaty said:
That's not what the manufacturers site says.
Click to expand...

Actually, it does mate :)

1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (blue) *1
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black) *1
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
3 x PCI
http://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/P8Z68V_LX/specifications/

However, I recall trying out 7970 xfire on a Z77V-LX (same pcie specs) and it worked fine in the limited time I tried it.
There may be a slight loss in performance compared to a pair of proper x8/x8 slots, but I wouldn't be too concerned about it. It's not going to be a stutter fest or anything.

Saying all that, if the main game is Arma, then don't bother unless you plan to play a lot more BF4 or something that might like and use the extra beef with higher settings.
 
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